MEN’S TENNIS WINS SEVENTH IN A ROW WITH 6-1 VICTORY OVER SAINT MARY’S

4/8/2010

MORAGA, Calif. – Sacramento State’s Kiryl Harbatsiuk, Anton Stryhas, Holden Ching, Marko Starcevic and Tim Lantin were each victorious in singles play to lead the Hornets to a 6-1 win over Saint Mary’s in a non-conference men’s tennis match Thursday evening at the Korth Tennis Complex.

With the victory, Sacramento State won its seventh match in a row and improved to a season-best six games above the .500 mark (13-7). During the winning streak, Sacramento State has outscored its opposition by a 38-11 margin. Tonight’s match also began a stretch that will see the Hornets play five matches in five days, including a home doubleheader tomorrow against Portland (10 a.m.) and Portland State (3 p.m.).

With a victory over Portland State tomorrow, Sacramento State will clinch the Big Sky Conference’s regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament later this month. If victorious in that match, the regular season title would be the program’s fourth straight, and ninth (1998-99, 2001-03, 2007-09) since joining the league in 1996.

Saint Mary’s fell to 5-12 overall and 4-4 at home with today’s loss.

The victory for Harbatsiuk (6-2, 6-4) was his 18th straight singles win as the reigning Big Sky MVP improved to 19-1 this season. The 18-match winning streak is two shy of the school record of 20 straight, set by Stryhas in 2008.

Harbatsiuk wasn’t the only Hornet to improve winning streaks as Stryhas (4-6, 7-5, 10-8) won his ninth consecutive match, and Starcevic (6-2, 6-4) won his seventh straight. Ching (6-3, 6-3) and Lantin (6-2, 6-1) were both victorious in straight sets. Jason Smith had won six straight singles matches until losing a third-set tiebreaker at the No. 3 spot in the team’s lineup.

Sacramento State’s tandems of Harbatsiuk/Starcevic (8-4), Stryhas/Ching (8-6) and Smith/Jimmy Roberts (9-7) each won their matches to help the Hornets gain the doubles point. Sacramento State has now won the doubles point in five of the last seven matches.

Sacramento State 6, Saint Mary's 1

Singles competition
1. #74 HARBATSIUK, Kiryl (SAC) def. Andrea Zannoni (SMC) 6-2, 6-4
2. STRYHAS, Anton (SAC) def. Lucas Tirelli (SMC) 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 10-8
3. Sherif Hamdy (SMC) def. SMITH, Jason (SAC) 7-5, 4-6, 10-5
4. CHING, Holden (SAC) def. Gavin Leon (SMC) 6-3, 6-3
5. STARCEVIC, Marko (SAC) def. Youssef El Bouzkouri (SMC) 6-2, 6-4
6. LANTIN, Tim (SAC) def. Michael Carreno (SMC) 6-2, 6-1

Doubles competition
1. HARBATSIUK, Kiryl/STARCEVIC, Marko (SAC) def. Lucas Tirelli/Gavin Leon (SMC) 8-4
2. STRYHAS, Anton/CHING, Holden (SAC) def. Andrea Zannoni/Michael Carreno (SMC) 8-6
3. ROBERTS, Jimmy/SMITH, Jason (SAC) def. Steve Dawson-Roberts/Sherif Hamdy (SMC) 9-7

Match Notes:
Sacramento State 13-7
Saint Mary's 5-12
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (1,4,6,5,3,2)